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Harry Rogers Pratt
| death_date = | term = 1933 - 1942 | predecessor = Arthur Fickenscher | successor = Randall Thompson }} Harry Rogers Pratt (January 17, 1884 – May 7, 1956) was a professor of music and drama at the University of Virginia from 1923 to 1954. Though he had no academic degree, he is credited with several accomplishments, including drawing the composer Randall Thompson to the University, founding the Virginia Players, and inaugurating the Glee Club Concert on the Lawn and Christmas concert traditions. Pratt was born in Boston and studied music at Harvard University before joining the University of Virginia faculty at the appointment of University president Edwin A. Alderman. He taught music and drama at Virginia and is credited with bringing Randall Thompson and Stephen Tuttle to join the music faculty as an associate professor. From 1923 to 1940, Pratt lived with his wife Agnes Rothery Pratt in The Mews, an outbuilding of Pavilion III, which they substantially remodeled. Pratt, who directed the Virginia Glee Club from 1933 through 1942, was remembered as a director who had less polish than those who succeeded him, but who possessed great enthusiasm and who was responsible for bringing the Glee Club to national prominence. His work with the Virginia Players included a world premiere performance of Edgar Allan Poe's only play, Politian. He was also a faculty member of the Jabberwock Society. As Glee Club director, Pratt was notable for leading the first Concert on the Lawn; led the group in its first national radio broadcasts; took the group to New York City for the first time; and brought enrollment from 16 to nearly 70 singers. In January 1943, he took a leave of absence from directing to teach navigation to Naval Pre-Flight Preparatory candidates, turning over the group to Randall Thompson and Stephen Tuttle. He formally resigned the directorship of the group in 1943 to focus on the Virginia Players, on and the war effort. He was remembered in a College Topics editorial as having grown the Glee Club from "16 singers, some of whom would and some would not show up at concert time" to "a full sized organization" that had "traditions of its own and had become traditional at the University." Pratt died in 1956 at Recoleta, the Charlottesville home that he had built with his wife, the writer Agnes Rothery. He is buried in the University of Virginia Cemetery. Seasons * Glee Club 1933-1934 season * Glee Club 1934-1935 season * Glee Club 1935-1936 season * Glee Club 1936-1937 season * Glee Club 1937-1938 season * Glee Club 1938-1939 season * Glee Club 1939-1940 season * Glee Club 1940-1941 season * Glee Club 1941-1942 season * Glee Club 1942-1943 season Gallery pratt_1930s.jpg|Harry Rogers Pratt (center), Ernest Mead (second from right), 1930s pratt_jefferson.jpg|Pratt portraying Jefferson (Virginia Players production) at Monticello pratt.jpg|Photo from 1940-1941 season brochure harryPrattLecture.jpg|Harry Rogers Pratt lecturing at UVA, courtesy University of Virginia Visual History Archive References Category:1956 deaths Category:Harvard University alumni Category:People from Charlottesville, Virginia Category:University_of_Virginia_faculty Category:Conductors of the Virginia Glee Club Category:Glee Club of the 1930s Category:Glee Club of the 1940s Category:Jabberwock Society members Category:People from Massachusetts Category:Virginia Players members Category:1884 births